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Asia Minor catastrophe
4 page telegram. The prefect of Heraklion, Michael Sgouros, sends a press release to district civil courts, land courts and squadrons of the prefecture of Heraklion in order for it to be published. The press release refers to the military and diplomatic developments of the Asia Minor campaign: collapse of the southern front military, concentration of the third Army Corps in Mudanya, stay of Stergiadis in Smyrna to settle various issues, proposal of the Istanbul commissioner to Kemal for truce. The telegram is governed by a tragic irony. When the telegram was sent on September 5, 1922, the last parts of the Third Army Corps were already fleeing Asia Minor from the port of Artaki. It was preceded by the terrible Turkish attack against the advanced positions of the Greek army along Afyonkarahisar on August 26. The collapse of the front was so quick that not even the telegraph services were able to follow the events and inform the public. Three days after sending the telegram, on September 8, the Turks entered Smyrna.